we have breaking news this morning. fire crews in howard county have had their hands full, battling a house fire from clarksville, maryland. within the hour a home in the

6000 block of blue point court caught fire. crews from montgomery helping t blaze. so far no injuries have been reported. we have understanding noi that they have knocked down the flames -- now that they have knocked down the flames. it is still a pretty serious situation in that area so stay away from it, if you can. thank you for joining us at noon. i'm andrea roane. the obama administration is reporting a dramatic improvement in the healthcare website. as tara mergener reports, there are still plenty of challenges ahead. >> reporter: the frantic work to fix the government's healthcare website is starting to pay off. president obama's technology troubleshooters say healthcare.gov can now handle 50,000 users at that time a time, or up to 800,000 each day. advisor jeffrey zion said the site now works most of the time

for most users. >> we executed hundreds of software fixes, and hardware upgrades. and the site is now stable and operating at its intended capacity, with greatly improved performance. >> reporter: the department of health and human services said system failures have fallen from 6% in october to less than 1%. and responses have declined from 8 minutes to less than one. the obama administration had promised the fixes by this past weekend. congress is watching closely, because the success or failure of healthcare reform is expected to be a critical factor in next year's midterm elections. already the botched rollout has put enrollment rates far below white house targets. consumers now have just a few weeks to sign up for coverage to begin on january 1. to handle the surge, the technology team is scrambling to make more upgrades to the

website and warns too much traffic could still overwhelm the system. tara mergener, for cbs news, washington. >> the technology team is scrambling to fix glitches in what is known as the back end of the system, meaning the part of the website that delivers consumer information to insurers. federal investigators from the national transportation safety board will spend the next two days interviewing the crew and passengers who are on the commuter train that jumped the tracks in new york city, killing four people. speed may have been a factor. but as marley hall reports, investigators say it is still too soon to know for sure. >> reporter: workers used cranes to upright trains -- train cars that toppled during the crash. they are also analyzing the train's data recorders to determine if the engineer may have been going too fast as he rounded a bend. >> a curve like this has a

speed limit. the speed limit was 30 miles per hour. at that speed, there should be no problem navigating the curve. >> reporter: the train's engineer, william rockefeller jr., has not yet spoken to investigators. rockefeller informed first responders the brakes were not working properly. until the tracks are cleared and repaired, 26,000 commuters are using buses and subways to get work. 54-year-old james lovely lost his life sunday. he was preparing for the lighting of the rockefeller center christmas tree. 60 others were injured. >> there was a lot of smoke. there was a lot of dirt and a lot of gravel going around. i looked down and realized my hand and my arm was all blood. then do you have start saying to yourself, whose blood is it? >> reporter: ntsb investigators

say it could take up to a year to determine the cause of the crash. marley hall for cbs news, the bronx new york. >> officials say this accident would have been much worse if it had happened on the week day. on the weekend the train was just about half full. two boys, 11 and 14, have been charged with armed robbery. it happened yesterday at the wal-mart on chesapeake center drive in glenn burney. one of the women was carrying a knife -- one of the women says the boys were carrying a knife and tried to rob her. shots rang out around 4:00 this morning at this bp gas station on walters lane near pennsylvania avenue. authorities believe the victim was a gas station customer. police also are trying to establish a motive for the shooting. the victim's name is not being released until next of kin have been notified. funeral services for slain

postal worker tyson barnett were held sunday. prince george's county police were back in the neighborhood on saturday where the 26-year- old was shot to death. detectives hope somebody saw something which will help them determine a motive and find barnett's killer. a $125,000 reward is being offered in the case. today is the busiest shipping day of the year for fedex. delia goncalves learned the ins and outs of the shipping business at the northeast warehouse. >> reporter: the operation a well-oiled machine. crews unload freight trucks, sort the packages on the conveyor belt. drivers pick up the parcels, scan them, and then hit the road. you cover not only dc but maryland as well. these crews head out the door at 8:00?

>> probably about 7:45 well's be out of the building. 115 to 120 routes will go out today. as it proceeds down the belt, the drivers look to see what route it is. they see it is their route. they scan it again that it is on their truck, then it is on the way. >> reporter: 22 million packages worldwide and an 11% increase from last year. that breaks down to 125 packages per second. crews here in the dc warehouse got an early start to their shipping day. >> you take your time, be aware of your surroundings. stay focused. >> reporter: with a team of meteorologists on site to update them on weather conditions, drivers gear up to deliver no matter what mother nature brings their way. with one goal in mind. to make the customer receiving the package or the gift happy this holiday season.

delia goncalves wusa9. >> this year fedex is offering a new service, where customers can choose the time of day for delivery. even though stores have been running cyber monday deals for days, today is the officially busiest shopping day of the year in the online world. last year sales hit nearly $1.5 billion. employers could take a hit today. retail me estimates for every hour of online shopping at work today, that will amount to $2.5 billion in lost productivity for companies. get ready to walk on the mild side. warmer temperatures to kickoff the month of december. howard is up in about 10 minutes with your first alert forecast. but first, see how fans of action movie star paul walker remember the actor after a deadly

grieving fans are waiting to hear when the family of actor paul walker will hold a memorial service. walker was killed in a car crash saturday night. he is best known for starring in the fast and furious franchise. police say speed was definitely a factor. walker's friend and business partner, roger rode us was driving when the porsche hit a tree and caught fire. because the bodiesweburned beyond recognition the medical examiner will use dental records to identify the remains. fans have created a makeshift memorial at the site. icy conditions there are being blamed for several crashes along highways sunday morning. more than 70 vehicles, including two tract trails crashed on i 290, creating a 1500-foot long chain of smashed

vehicles. 30 people were taken to the loss. three people are said to have suffered serious injuries. mild temperatures this week. but keep in mind, we are in december, and it is only a matter of time before we are thrown back into the deep freeze. howard has details in his forecast, next. andrea, on the weather terrace right now, comfortable, cool. chilly out here, thanks to the very light winds we are dealing with. only 40 in northern lowdon county. up to 49 in baden. i'll be back. we are going to talk about the mild temperatures, rain chance and maybe slick stuff around here in the

i have been combing through the day's daily deals and retailer websites to find you deep discounts. all day long amazon.com is offering lightning deals. these are deep discounts that change every ten minutes. discounts have ranged from 19% to 89% off lots of stuff to look for there. wal-mart.com is also running specials across-the-board. deals like there one. pay $275 and you get a kids' ride on ford f150 truck. originally this would have cost you $319. you also find lots of tv deals online today. an example for you, this one at

best buy.com, selling a 37-inch insignia hd tv. the price is $199, saving you $100. if you see a deal you would like it share with our audience, connect with me on facebook. i'm jessica doyle w ua s 9. -- wusa9. an online gift registry with a twist. some of the money can also go to your child's college fund. lisa is here from triple the gift.com. thank you very much for being here. you said this is an idea you and your friend andrea came up with, after all the things your kids are involved in. tell us about that. >> thank you for having us, andrea. i appreciate it. this is an idea where every year we have come across another birthday party, another holiday and we were accumulating more and more gifts for our kids.

which was wonderful. we thought wouldn't it be a great idea if there was a way we could save or have people contribute to our kids' college education, as well as teaching our kids how to donate to things that are meaningful to them and that is how triple the gift was born. >> so how does it work? it sounds like a gift registry or wedding registry. >> right. you personalize it, a person can put the child's name, event, joey's christmas registry, and a special message for family and friends to see. they invite family and friends to see it through e-mails, with a link or can directly e-mail from the website that we set up a registry. >> do you list what you want for the child as well as gifts or amounts of money if i donations? how does that work? >> you can definitely put in there any sort of message. if that child is saving for a

special technological gift or whatever. when parents set up the registry, they designate how much for the gift card, how much for college savings and how much for the charity of their choice. >> so is there a service fee or charge to set up the registry? >> there is no service fee to view it. there is a charge for when someone contributes to the registry. >> that his caught on? are you seeing people signing up for the registry? >> it is catching on slowly. we have done a grass roots sort of marketing plan. so we are trying and working on it. but it is. it is. >> lisa, congratulations on a really interesting idea. >> thank you. >> if people want to know more about it, go to triple the gift.com. congratulations. >> thank you. we have a special promotion. >> okay. we have. >> we have a holiday promotion .10 dollars will be added to

anybody's registry as long as there are contributions by december 26th. let's go to howard now and found out about the different kind of precipitation that could fall from the sky. >> thursday and friday gets interesting and sunday could be a real problem. hazy out there right now. visibility 5, 6, 8 miles with cloudy skies. our day planner for the rest of the afternoon. upper 40s to about 50. but the key here, the wind speeds. look how light they are. they are running 4 miles per hour, 3 miles per hour. that is not a big deal. we become accustomed to colder temperatures. actually being outside without a jacket, comfortably chly, is the way i have described it. certainly to the south, they had clear skies overnight. places like richmond had some fog. saint mary's county, on the eastern shore we have the clouds. you can see the difference just with the temperatures already

55 at the airport. they were in the upper 20s this morning. but the clouds, they are just struggling. winchester, frederick, hagerstown. 39 degrees. a far different day up there than it is down south. here in dc, in spite of the cloud cover, we are seeing temperatures slowly inch up. reagan national now 47. there is the key. calm winds making it feel very bearable outside. barometer rising a little bit at the moment. we are watching super cold air though, up in canada once again. the arctic is reloading. not yet into southwest canada, but the air is going to be just coming south into the west coast the next few days. they are going to get cold. by friday morning they could be 10, 20 below. as the cold goes west the warmth moves up in the east. the jet stream, we have two branches of it right now. this one coming into the

northwest with rain and snow. we think the precipitation is going to be over by tonight's monday night football game there. then in the southern branch, weak systems coming through georgia and mississippi now. going to take a few days for the jet stream to get its act together. when it does, it will bring showers our way. we might even see something on wednesday. by sunday, that is when enough cold air is in place. futurecast fairly quiet. by tomorrow morning, up in pennsylvania, especially new york state, look at that. isolated shower north t and tomorrow. tomorrow ends up seeing a little bit more sun in the afternoon. i am some what concerned sunday could be a little dicey around here. 50 degrees, sees sonnable this afternoon. sun south. tonight in the 30s. showers in the mountains. but it should stay above freezing most areas. tomorrow 51. another seasonable day, more sun in the afternoon. wednesday milder, mid-50s.

can't rule out a shower wednesday. we are going to keep it up, better chance of showers later thursday and friday. look at these temperatures, perhaps better than 60 degrees. cooler saturday and sunday mid- 30s. could have snow to ice to rain across parts of the area. that is not set in stone, but certainly something to watch. we are going to be zçzçtó

well if you piled on a couple of pounds over the thanksgiving holiday, you are not alone. we have some help for you. west end bistro chef devin is here with guilt free recipes. thank you very much for being here. the restaurant is located in

the ritz-carlton in georgetown. soup on a day like today would be great. that is what you are making? >> we have a butternut squash dessert, to be honest. >> oh i had the wrong information. >> this is often made with acorn squash. this is a honey and rose water butternut squash dessert candy pecans and whipped cream. >> we use artificial sweeteners and honey to sweeten the syrup and we have cloves and rose water and lemon juice. >> so what do we do? >> we have our water first, and rose water. we have our artificial sweetener your choice whichever you prefer. >> and we have this recipe on

our website. >> when we have our hot syrup going, we pour it over the butter nut squash, or pumpkin, if you would prefer. >> just a couple of slices. >> that is it. >> the beauty is we are using fresh ingredients, instead of buying canned pumpkin puree. these go in the oven. we bake for 15 minutes and then uncovered for 15 to allow the syrup to reduce. we have this wonderful poached pumpkin or squash. >> while you are putting on some of the things like the whipped cream, you are offering light classes on saturday so we all can learn holiday foods light? >> absolutely. we will go over this dish as

well as several other or denver -- foods, stuffed chicken breast graced with coffee. -- glazed with coffee. howard and

>> ashley: so, i did call billy, and he made up an excuse for not seeing me, actually. >> abby: so, you're not gonna see him at all? >> ashley: no, not this time. he wants his space, so i'm gonna give it to him. you know what? abby, my ankle isn't that bad. i don't really think i need to see... the doctor. >> stitch: what do we have here? >> abby: a thanksgiving casualty. >> victoria: our first thanksgiving without delia. [ sighs ] we knew it was gonna be hard. >> billy: yeah. we did.